Chapter 21 Chapter Twenty

In a café across from KIG headquarters, Diana Stevens and Kelly Harris sit in a corner booth.Kelly waited for Diana to speak. Diana didn't know how to speak.What terrible thing has happened to your husband, Mrs. Harris?Had he been murdered, like Richard? Kelly said impatiently, "What's the matter? You said you wanted to talk to me about my husband. Do you know Mark well?" "I don't know him, but—" Kelly was furious: "You said you—" "I said I wanted to talk about him." Kelly stood up: "I don't have time to play with you, ma'am." She started to walk outside.

"Wait! I think we might have the same problem, and we might be able to help each other." Kelly stopped in his tracks: "What are you talking about?" "please sit down." Kelly reluctantly returned to her seat: "Go ahead." "I want to ask you if—" A waiter came over with a menu: "What do the two ladies want?" Get out of here, Kelly thought, "Nothing." Diane said, "Two cups of coffee." Kelly looked at Diane and said defiantly, "Change mine to tea." "Yes, ma'am." The waiter left. Diana said, "I miss you and I—"

A little girl came to the table and said to Kelly, "Can I get your autograph?" Kelly looked at her: "Do you know who I am?" "Don't know, but my mother said you were a celebrity." "I'm not," Kelly said. "Oh." They watched the little girl leave. Diana looked at Kelly in confusion. "Should I ask your name?" "No," Kelly continued clearly. "I don't like meddling prying into my private life. What does all this mean, Mrs. Stevens?" "Call me Diana, please. I heard something terrible happened to your husband, and—"

"Yes, he was killed." Did you and Mark ever talk about Olga? "My husband was also killed. They all work for KIG." Kelly said impatiently, "Really? Well, there are thousands of other employees. If they both have a cold, do you call it a plague because of that?" Diana leaned forward. "Listen, this is important. First—" Kelly said, "I'm sorry. I'm not interested in listening." She picked up her wallet. "I'm not in the mood for it," Diana retorted, "but it might be very—" Suddenly Diana's voice resounded throughout the shop.

"There are four people in the room." Startled, Diana and Kelly turned away from the sound.Diana's voice came from a television set above the counter.She was in court, on the witness stand. "A man was sitting on a chair, bound. Mr. Altieri appeared to be questioning him, and two others stood beside him. Mr. Altieri drew a gun and shot—shot the man in the back of the head." gun." The moderator appears on the screen. "This is Diana Stevens, testifying at the murder trial of Mafia boss Anthony Altieri. The jury has just returned a not guilty verdict." Diana sat stunned: " Not guilty?"

"The murder that took place nearly two years ago saw Anthony Altieri charged with killing one of his employees. Although Diane Stevens testified, the jury heard others who disagreed with her. Eyewitness." Kelly stared at the TV with wide-eyed eyes.A new witness takes the stand. Jack Rubenstein, Altieri's lawyer, asked: "Dr. Russell, do you have a practice in New York?" "No. I only open in Boston." "Did you treat Mr. Altieri for a heart attack on the day of the incident?" "Yes. About nine o'clock in the morning. I kept him under observation all day."

"So he can't be in New York on October fourteenth?" "impossible." Another witness appeared on the screen. "Can you tell us your occupation, sir?" "I'm the manager of the Pike Hotel in Boston." "Were you on duty on October 14 last year?" "Yes, I am on duty that day." "Did anything special happen that day?" "Yes, I received an emergency call from the penthouse suite asking me to send a doctor up immediately." "What happened next?" "I called Dr. Joseph Russell, and he came right away. We went to the penthouse suite to check on the guest, Anthony Altieri."

"What did you see when you arrived?" "Monsieur Altieri, he's lying on the floor. I think he's going to die in our hotel." Diana paled. "They lied," she said hoarsely. "Both lied." Anthony Altieri was interviewed.He looked vulnerable. "Do you have any plans for the near future, Monsieur Altieri?" "Now that the criminal has been severely punished, I can rest easy and rest for a while." Altieri smiled, "Maybe we should settle some old accounts." Kelly was dumbfounded.Turning to Diana. "You testified against him?"

"Yes. I saw him kill—" Kelly's trembling hands couldn't hold the cup steady, the tea spilled out, and a salt shaker was knocked over: "I have to leave immediately." "Why are you so nervous?" "Why am I nervous? You're trying to send the mafia boss to prison and he's getting away with some old debts to settle, but you're asking me why I'm nervous? You should be nervous." Kelly stood up and dropped some money on the table. "I'll pay the bill. You'd better economize on the travel expenses, Mrs. Stevens." "Wait! We haven't talked about our husbands, or—"

"Pull it down." Kelly walked straight to the door, Diana reluctantly following her. "I think you're overreacting," Diana argued. "Do you think?" When they got to the exit, Kelly said, "I don't see how you'd be stupid enough to go—" An elderly man was walking towards the store on crutches. Suddenly, his foot slipped and he fell.For a split second, Kelly was in Paris, and it was Mark who fell, and she reached out to save him, while Diana rushed to help him. At that instant, two gunshots were heard from across the street, and the bullets entered the wall where the two women had been standing.

The gunshot brought Kelly back to reality immediately.She was in Manhattan and had just had tea with a crazy woman. "My God!" Diana screamed. "us--" "This is not the time to pray. We need to leave now!" Kelly pushed Diana to the sidewalk, where Colin was standing next to the car.He opened the door, and Kelly and Diane scrambled into the backseat. "What noise?" Colin asked. Two women sat, huddled in the back seat, too shocked to speak. Finally, Kelly said, "Yeah, uh, the gun must have gone off." She turned to Diana, who was struggling to regain her composure. "Hope I'm not overreacting," she said wryly. "I'll take you home. Where do you live?" Diana took a deep breath and gave Colin the address of her apartment building.The two women kept absolute silence all the way, both scared out of their wits by what happened just now. As the car pulled up in front of her building, Diane turned to Kelly: "Can you come in? I'm a little nervous. I have a feeling there's something else going on." Kelly fired back curtly: "I feel the same way—but not me. Goodbye, Mrs. Stevens." Diana looked at Kelly for a while, ready to say something, then shook her head and got out of the car. Kelly watched as Diana walked into the front hall and into her first-floor apartment.Kelly sighed in relief. Colin said, "Where do you want to go, Mrs. Harris?" "Go back to the hotel, Colin, and—" There were screams from the apartment.Kelly hesitated for a moment, then opened the car door and quickly ran into the building. Diana left the door to her apartment wide open.She stood in the middle of the room, trembling. "What happened?" "Someone—someone broke in. Richard's briefcase was on this table and it's gone. It's full of his papers. They left his wedding ring where the briefcase used to be. " Kelly looked around nervously. "You'd better call the police." "Yes." Diana remembered the business card Inspector Greenberg had left on the hallway table.She walked over and picked it up.After a moment, she said into the microphone, "Inspector Earl Greenberg on the phone." The other side delayed for a while. "Greenberg." "Inspector Greenberg, this is Diana Stevens. Something has happened here. I was wondering if you could come over and... thank you." Diana took a deep breath and turned to Kelly. "He's coming. If you don't mind waiting until he—" "I do mind. It's your problem. I don't want to get involved. You might mention that someone just tried to kill you. I'm off to Paris right away. Goodbye, Mrs. Stevens." Diana watched as Kelly walked out to the car without looking back. "Where are you going?" Colin asked. "Go back to the hotel, please." There she will be in no danger.